Thailand’s industrial output shrinks in August

Thailand's industrial output contracted in August due to decreased auto production, higher production costs and flooding in the north, official data showed on Thursday. The manufacturing production index (MPI) fell 1.91 percent last month from a year earlier, reversing from a revised 1.63 percent increase in July and marking the steepest decline since March, according to the Ministry of Industry. For the first eight months of 2024, the MPI dipped 1.55 percent year-on-year as pressures from high household debt and interest rates weakened consumer spending, while rising energy prices and competitively priced imported goods continued to affect the Thai industrial sector, said the ministry's Office of Industrial Economics Director-General Warawan Chitaroon. Industrial output is expected to continue falling in September, partly owing to floods and strong local currency Thai baht. However, the index could improve slightly in the final quarter of the year as the tourism sector enters its peak season, Warawan tol d a news conference. The ministry adjusted its MPI projection to decrease between 1 percent and 0 percent this year, from the rise between 0 percent and 1 percent expected earlier. Source: The Namibia News Agency